Hawaii man starts state's first online campaign to erase medical debt

A Hawaii man is working with a national nonprofit to erase medical debt for hundreds of residents in his state, Texas and Florida, according to news website Honolulu Civil Beat.

Daren Hashimoto has started a crowdfunding campaign through RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit charity that buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar to forgive it. He's trying to raise $15,000 to eliminate $1.5 million of medical debt. The $15,000 through RIP would erase nearly $300,000 in medical debt in Hawaii from 350 accounts, and $600,000 in medical debt in Texas and Florida each, according to the campaign website and Civil Beat.